Rowsome the star
Pat’s Minors register emphatic win
ST. PATRICK’S 3-18
MONAGEER-B’VOGUE 0-7
ST. PATRICK’S rounded out the Roinn 2B group stages of the Wexford People Minor hurling championship with an emphatic victory over Monageer-Boolavogue in Camolin on Monday of last week.
The win was enough to give the hosts third spot in the table, matching them with the second-placed finisher in Roinn 2A, Bannow-Ballymitty, in the quarter-finals. Without doubt, with a half-forward line as devastating as they possess, they have a real shot at going all the way.
That trio proved the difference in this game. The visitors gave it a good crack and for most of the first-half were right in the battle, but when that line started to get
motoring St. Patrick’s were a different team altogether.
It was a low-scoring first quarter as both sides got to terms with the task at hand. A Ronan O’Leary free got Monageer-Boolavogue on the board, but right on 15 minutes Micheál Rowsome equalised with his first of a stunning personal haul of 1-11.
That score kick-started a backand-forth tussle for the next ten minutes. Rowsome - whose father is a former Monageer-Boolavogue hurler - and the impressive Alan Murphy raised white flags for the hosts, while Dylan Brady and Peter Gahan were on target at the other end as the score ticked on to 0-4 each.
Yet, the last few minutes of the half hurt the visitors’ fragile resolve, especially Rowsome’s 29th-minute screamer of a goal, where he hared away down the right side and flashed an unstoppable shot past Eoin Dolan between the Mon-
ageer-Boolavogue posts.
Hot-shot Rowsome added another three points after the resumption before Darren Kelly scored a classy point at the other end.
Scores were coming more regularly for St. Patrick’s as they moved towards the end of the third quarter 1-13 to 0-6 ahead.
Darragh Byrne ended any hope of a comeback with a pulled major in the 45th minute. Substitute Eoin Kelly also added his name to the point-getters before another replacement, Andrew O’Brien, injected added gloss onto the scoreboard with a clinically-taken late major.
While St. Patrick’s go into the Roinn 2 championship, Monageer-Boolavogue drop into the shield - with Geraldine O’Hanrahans, Hollow Rovers and Shamrocks - and they will have a great chance of winning it.
St. Patrick’s: Colin Kavanagh;
Adam Goff, Eoin Curran, Daniel Rooney; Brian Murphy, Adam Kavanagh, Cormac Kavanagh (capt.); Darragh Byrne (1-0), Cian Byrne; Micheál Rowsome (1-11, 0-5 frees), Marcus Sheridan, Alan Murphy (0-5); Nathan Byrne (0-1), Michael Doyle, Dan Chisholm. Subs. - Eoin Kelly (0-1) for Doyle (43), Cian Byrne (Gilworth) for N. Byrne (53), Andrew O’Brien (1-0) for Chisholm (53), Ben Kavanagh for Goff (55), Jake Kenny-O’Leary for Curran (56), Craig Blackburn for Rooney (56), also Oisín Woolmington, Pádraig Doyle.
Monageer-Boolavogue: Eoin Dolan; T.J. Breen, Ryan Farrell-Kenna, Jack Doran; Jack Redmond, Ronan O’Leary (capt., 0-2, 1 free), Rúairí Leacy; Conor Dolan, Eoin Gahan; James Mernagh, Darren Kelly (0-1), Fionn Walsh; Peter Gahan (0-3), Dylan Brady (0-1), Alan O’Neill. Subs. - Johnny O’Brien for O’Neill (31), James De Lacy for Redmond (53).
Referee: Francis Neville (Shelmaliers).